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“But why nae?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why nae? Ye want me to trust ye, but ye reveal nothing.”

“I’ve revealed enough; ye’re just hard to give yer trust away.”

“That’s true, but I have me reasons.”

“And I daenae?”

“None that ye’re willing to share.”

“Will ye tell me why ye daenae trust people, then?”

25

“Will ye tell me why ye daenae trust people, then?” he countered.

Leave it to Evander to ask the same thing she did. Why was she even surprised he turned the question around on her?

Freya found that she could not look at him. She wasn’t sure why she’d said anything. The words had tumbled out before she realized it.

This was happening more and more lately. Spending time in Evander’s company was making her do and say things she normally never would

Seeing him waltz in here, carrying a tray of food, was not what she had expected. She had thought he would be cross that she didn’t appear during dinner, but all he cared about was whether she had eaten.

She hadn’t meant to neglect her needs. She had been so worried about Archer that everything else ceased to matter. Jack’s words hurt more than she let on. He had told her, to her face, that she shouldn’t watch over the baby. Part of her wanted to prove him wrong, to show that she could be trusted.

The twins had only been in her care for a short time, but she adored them. Archer and Amelia were the sweetest babies. They depended on her, and she had let Archer down in that brief moment.

Never again.

She would never let them out of her sight again, which was why she skipped meals. She didn’t have time to eat when she had to make sure Archer was all right.

She looked down at the tray in her lap, at the half-eaten bannock and the honey Evander had brought her, as if he’d somehow known it was her weakness.

It was only fair. She knew it was only fair. She had sat here and demanded his reasons as if she were owed them, and now he was asking for hers, and what kind of woman asked for something she wasn’t willing to give?

But the words sat in her throat like a stone.

It had been eleven years. She’d never told it to anyone, not properly. Kaden knew, and her father had known, because they’d been the ones to deal with the lad afterward. But she had never once said the words aloud. She had never had to.

Skye didn’t even know, and her younger sister was her best friend. She likely heard the stories, but she had never brought it up to Freya out of fear of how she might react.

Admittedly, Freya would have reacted poorly. She would have lashed out at her sister. She was grateful that Skye had never gone through anything like that. That her first kiss was taken by someone she had grown to care for, whether Freya approved of him most of the time or not.

Freya had not had such a luxury.

And now she was supposed to tell it to the Wolf? He’d likely laugh. Or worse, he would look at her the way men looked at foolish girls.

A spoiled scheme behind a stable, he’d think. That was all it had been. Some lads were too eager, and every lass learned that sooner or later. She’d punched the boy and run, and she had built her whole life since on that one night, like a fortress built on a pebble.

He would think her a child. Naïve. Ridiculous.

How could a man like the Wolf ever understand why she had let that one moment in her life make a decision she intended to stick to? It was why she had made a vow to never marry or let a man touch her again, in heart or body.

Then that night in the inn happened.